The George Bernard Shaw Collection

Eight of George Bernard Shaw's most memorable plays in one splendid collection: Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, The Devil’s Disciple, Major Barbara, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Misalliance, and Pygmalion.

The War of the Worlds (Dramatized)

One of the most memorable programs in broadcast history, the Halloween Eve 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds set off a nationwide panic that's almost unimaginable today. Presented by the Mercury Theatre on the Air and its creatve genius, Orson Welles, the drama based on H.G. Wells' classic novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth.

It's a masterful radio dramatization dating back to 1938. The radio play allegedly "stirred terror through the U.S." and "terrified the nation". The broadcast started with the introduction by Orson Welles: "We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own." The broadcast went on followed by a weather report and interviews that were meant to make the dramatization sound realistic. Then there was a special news bulletin announcing that an object about 30 yards wide had fallen on a farm at Grovers Mill. What the news reporter saw next he described as "the most terrifying thing" he had ever witnessed... I was hooked by this true-to-life radio adaptation. The way the Martian invasion and its aftermath were reported, and the enactment of one of the few survivors were brilliant.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness.

When I first listened to the story a year ago, I was deeply moved and shaken. It took me so much time to listen to it again. I must say it's not just a spooky story of a woman showing signs of incipient madness, as it might seem. It's a protest against quack psychiatrists of the 19th century, who instead of curing patients ended up complicating their mental illness. The story is autobiographical. Being unstable, C.P. Gilman suffered from nervous breakdowns herself. She turned to a physician, whose treatment methods proved to be ineffective. C.P. Gilman was subdued to the domestic sphere, was allowed to have only two hours' intellectual stimulation, and was prevented from working. Deprived from normal life, she nearly slipped into insanity. Only when Gilman returned to work, did she manage to recover.As Charlotte Perkins Gilman put it, the story "was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy".

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

I've listened to this jewel of a book twice already, and I certainly can't get enough of it. S. Fry's rendition is outstanding. If you haven't listened to H2G2, you definitely missed a lot. Philosophically, the book poses the question: Do we really need to seek answers, or should we simply accept life for what it is? Absurdism is the central theme of the novel, yet events don't actually happen in random order, and even the craziest course of events is congruous. D. Adams wrote a brilliant book, more of a scathing satire than an SF novel. It's not just a hilariously funny book, though on the face of it, it is. Adams masterfully employs humor to satirize serious matters. The Guide is a witty commentary on the absurd society we live in.

I wanted to have a brush up on my Spanish, so I thought Cpe was a wonderful opportunity. But unfortunately, the rendition was a total disappointment. The way I see it, it should have had more zing to it. I missed emotional involvement on the narrator's part. Anyway, for foreign learners of Spanish, the book will prove useful. Though the excitement might quickly die down.

The Modern Scholar: Masterpieces of Western Music

This lecture series focuses on the very best of Western music, and as we progress through these lectures, the following are two important questions that we will seek to answer as we examine the various musical selections: What makes these works masterpieces? Why highlight these works?

Machine Man

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts. Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon. A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man's quest for ultimate self-improvement.

It's a witty and entertaining book that was originally an online serialized novel (check out M. Barry's website). It revolves around Charles Neumann, a reticent engineer, who loses his limb and decides to improve his body by building a new leg. The funny thing that happens is that the less 'organic' Charles becomes, the more human he feels. The book IS cynical and entertaining, but it also raises philosophical and ethical questions. What is it to be human? Would you download and upload your mind into a much better equipped robot body? Having been subjected to augmentation, can we still remain human? Thinking about the quote from Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible "...immortality (in the form of DNA-enhanced or silicon bodies) may be the ultimate future of humanity," the question is, what if the essence of humanity could be lost as a result of biotechnological improvement?On the plus side, there are revolutionary ways of transforming human capabilities, such as pacemakers and tissue grafts that prolong life; e-broidery and smart prosthetics. So in order to survive and 'upgrade' our biological adaptability we need some nanotechnological enhancement. Or do we?At the same time, a cyborgian reality can widen the gap between 'organic' and 'augmented' people, those who can afford to buy a better body and the havenots, those who become supersoldiers and ordinary people, unable to defend themselves...And it's the book that gave me food for thought. As I read about Charles looking everywhere for his lost phone in Chapter 1, I thought about the way technology infiltrates our life. We are overdependent on it. As Naomi Goldenberg put it, "We are engaged in a process of making one another disappear by living more and more of our lives apart from other humans, in the company of machines..." Even now, while typing this, I desperately rely on my iPad.

50 Psychology Classics

Spanning hundreds of ideas developed over the past century, 50 Psychology Classics also explores important contemporary writings, such as Gladwell's Blink and Seligman's Authentic Happiness. Listeners will gain insight into the scientific research of leading contemporary psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists. And they'll discover why we think and act the way we do from the landmark best-sellers of psychology.

It is supposed to be "psychology for non-psychologists", which basically means it briefly covers the major writings and biographies of famous authors. Cutting edge? Definitely not. But it's summarizing and terse. It's a starting point to actually read those works explored. If you want an in-depth study, you read the book by the author, not a summary.Here's the list of authors and the works:1 Alfred Adler Understanding Human Nature2 Gavin de Becker The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence3 Eric Berne Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships4 Robert Bolton People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts5 Edward de Bono Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step6 Nathaniel Branden The Psychology of Self-Esteem7 Isabel Briggs Myers Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type8 Louann Brizendine The Female Brain9 David D. Burns Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy10 Robert Cialdini Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion11 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention12 Albert Ellis & Robert A. Harper A Guide to Rational Living13 Milton Erickson My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson14 Erik Erikson Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History15 Hans Eysenck Dimensions of Personality16 Susan Forward Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You17 Viktor Frankl The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy18 Anna Freud The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence19 Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams20 Howard Gardner Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences21 Daniel Gilbert Stumbling on Happiness 22 Malcolm Gladwell Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking23 Daniel Goleman Working with Emotional Intelligence 24 John M. Gottman The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work25 Harry Harlow The Nature of Love26 Thomas A. Harris I’m OK—You’re OK27 Eric Hoffer The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements28 Karen Horney Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis29 William James The Principles of Psychology30 Carl Jung The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious31 Alfred Kinsey Sexual Behavior in the Human Female32 Melanie Klein Envy and Gratitude33 R. D. Laing The Divided Self: A Study of Sanity and Madness34 Abraham Maslow The Farther Reaches of Human Nature35 Stanley Milgram Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View36 Anne Moir & David Jessel Brainsex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women37 Ivan Pavlov Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex38 Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality39 Jean Piaget The Language and Thought of the Child40 Steven Pinker The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human41 V. S. Ramachandran Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind42 Carl Rogers On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy43 Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales44 Barry Schwartz The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less45 Martin Seligman Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment46 Gail Sheehy Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life47 B. F. Skinner Beyond Freedom and Dignity48 Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, & Sheila Heen Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most49 William Styron Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness50 Robert E. Thayer The Origin of Everyday Moods: Managing Energy, Tension, and Stress

V for Vendetta

Imagine a Britain stripped of democracy, a world of the not-too-distant future in which freedom has been surrendered willingly to a totalitarian regime which rose to power by exploiting the people's worst fears and most damning weaknesses.

V for Vendetta is a dystopia (though some authors distinguish dystopias from anti-utopias, but I'd rather use the former term). So, as any dystopia, it is meant to be a critique of the social or political system that exist in reality. Dystopias express our modern age anxieties and fears, as well as disillusionment with the utopian thought. VfV describes the tyranny of a totalitarian regime and its evils; utter misery of the people; an individual crushed by the police state; people living in a constant nightmare. Exploitation, corruption, destruction, decline of faith and terror. What makes this dystopia stand out is that the audiobook is based on the comic book series, and the protagonist doesn't want to be trampled on by the totalitarian machine. Estranged, V takes revenge and, having no scruples left, defies the state by using 'like-cures-like' methods: murder, terrorism, and subterfuge.Well, perhaps, the question the reader can ask themselves is, Does the end justify the means? What V does is immoral, but if the environment is sick, does social ethics need to exist? If you want to be free, is chaos the only way to gain freedom?V is certainly not a fictional character. His anarchic prototypes are not remnants of the past revolutions, but quite an inspiration behind protests nowadays.As D. Harvey wrote, 'There is a time and place in the ceaseless human endeavor to change the world, when alternative visions, no matter how fantastic, provide the grist for shaping powerful political forces for change.' But, honestly, dystopian visions don't seem so fantastic the minute you link them with real events that happened in the past or are currently going on. There's nothing depicted in dystopias that people haven't committed. P.S. As for the performance, it was excellent. Simon Vance is unrivalled!

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

The book kept me thinking how easy it is to cross the fine line between what we consider to be sane and insane, normal and abnormal. We take so many things for granted (like walking, sitting, remembering) that we don't really pay attention to them. But when a disaster strikes, and your body/mind doesn't feel the same way it used to, how do you react? Give up, or fight to feel 'normal' and 'together' again? It was eye-opening to listen to this fantastic book. I felt that the author had never held himself aloof from his patients. The book was written with such compassion and empathy that I was so absorbed I couldn't do anything else. It's a must-have for anyone interested in neuropsychiatry, neurology and psychology. The book is made up of 4 parts:1. Losses (with special emphasis on visual agnosia)Essays:The man who mistook his wife for a hat;The lost mariner;The disembodied lady;The man who fell out of bed;Hands;Phantoms;On the level;Eyes right;The President's speech.2. Excesses (i.e. disorders or diseases like Tourette's syndrome, tabes dorsalis - a form of neurosyphilis, and the 'joking disease')Essays:Witty Ticcy Ray;Cupid's disease;A matter of identity;Yes, Father-Sister;The possessed.3. Transports (on the 'power of imagery and memory', e.g. musical epilepsy, forced reminiscence and migrainous visions)Essays:Reminiscence;Incontinent nostalgia;A passage to India;The dog beneath the skin;Murder;The visions of Hildegard.4. The world of the simple (on the advantages of therapy centered on music and arts when working with the mentally retarded)Essays:Rebecca;A walking grove;The twins;The autist artist.

Stoner

William Stoner is born at the end of the 19th century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, far different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments.

I'd say it was emotionally exhausting to listen to the book. There are no wars depicted; no atrocities described. But there's the tragedy of one man, the broken, or rather ruined promises, the futility of aspiration, and failure of love. Yes, it's a story about an ordinary life, not about superheroes we look up to, but we never come across them in real life. It's a story that could have happened to any of us, about the things we're too afraid to do, and then regret not doing them. Vanity of vanities... Thus 'Stoner' is thought-provoking and pensive. Its sadness is reverberating. I listened to it in one sitting, but I had to stop the audio from time to time to recharge my 'battery'. And it took me some time to get down to it and write the review. It was so hard to listen to the book, because of the emotional involvement and empathy I felt towards the protagonist. A brilliant and moving novel.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.